


to the ends of the earth

by angelicxi



Category: Naruto
Genre: (Or is it?), Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Light Angst, Mild Language, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Some Humor, Threats of Violence, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-17
Updated: 2018-01-19
Packaged: 2019-03-06 02:59:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,393
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13401996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angelicxi/pseuds/angelicxi
Summary: Sasuke leaves, intent on disappearing. Sakura isn't one to give up so easily, however. — mildly canon-divergent.





	1. Chapter 1

he doesn’t come back.

 

.

.

.

 

she heals his arm – feels the muscle knot itself back into place over the stump where the impact had blown flesh and blood and bone to dust – and hates herself for not being able to do more.

 

for not being able to stop him, somehow.

 

for not being able to save him, somehow.

 

“Sakura?”

 

there’s so much ash in her eyes. she can barely see him through the film of green light coating her hands.

 

“Hm?”

 

_poke._

 

“Thank you.”

 

there’s a crust of blood and worse under his nails — and he’s so _cold_ to the touch, a pale, sepulchral apparition. she leans into the gesture, all the same; and if her eyes are watering, well. that’s nobody’s business but her own.

 

“Stupid,” she murmurs. “You’re so _stupid_.”

 

his lips quirk in a faint smile.

 

“Yeah,” he grunts, noncommittal. his voice is a faraway thing, almost as if he is drifting off to sleep. it feels like he’s fading. her heart squeezes, and squeezes, and _squeezes._

 

love is such a painful thing.

 

after a while, he murmurs: “I suppose I am quite the fool.”

 

“Yeah, you are. You really are.”

 

those are the last coherent words they exchange.

 

somewhere in the commotion that follows – somewhere in-between the piles of dead bodies and victory cheers and unsteady feet – Uchiha Sasuke vanishes.

 

just like that.

 

.

.

.

 

“You _are_ aware that if you go,” Kakashi says, and he’s aged so much since taking office, she feels that she could _drown_ in the lines beneath his eyes, “I’ll have to list you as rogue, right?”

 

_thud._

 

“Then here’s my resignation.”

 

he stares at the headband with the same weary look parents have when dealing with an unruly child. _Looking at the bigger picture, I guess that’s exactly what I am._

 

“There’s no way to dissuade you, is there,” he says after a while, and it isn’t a question.

 

she shakes her head.

 

“I’m doing this, with or without your consent.”

 

there’s a long moment of silence.

 

then, just as her heart feels like it’ll burst from sheer duress: “Okay.”

 

“Okay?”

 

“Okay.” he pushes the headband back to her. “Officially, I will be assigning you as his monitoring agent — assuming you can find him.”

 

“...and unofficially?”

 

he smiles through the mask. “Just don’t get yourself killed.”

 

 _Easier said than done,_ she thinks, but doesn’t say.

 

at dawn, she’s gone.

 

.

.

.

 

trying to pick up his trail on her own proves to be infinitely harder than anticipated, to the point where she almost wishes she had asked a sensor type for help, at least partway of the journey. _But then again; this is something I chose to do. I must do it alone._

 

she doesn’t know when, exactly, he had transitioned from being the love of her life to her very personal mission, but there have always been enough blurred edges between the two of them to recreate the sea, and so she doesn’t ponder. it’s best not to.

 

_Do all the thinking with your muscles, Sakura. At least for now. You’ll figure yourself out later._

 

 _when he is home_ echoes through her mind, but it seems somehow too terrible an afterthought to think, let alone utter. she wishes it forgotten.

 

instead, she entrusts herself to the open plain — praying the grass to linger disturbed a little longer where his feet touch; begging the rivers and the distant mountains to look upon him kindly and the stars to hold back the rain where there isn’t any shelter.

 

“Please,” she whispers, and her hands entwine without her noticing. “Wherever he is, just please don’t let him suffer.”

 

world knows the boy – now a man grown – already has enough scars on his psyche to map out the entire night sky.

 

.

.

.

 

she tries out the old hideouts, first.

 

the Land of Sound – now returned to being the Land of Rice Paddies – is beautiful, despite the nearing winter. the low terrain and hunched hills make for such clear, open view; and although initially reticent to strangers, the locals try their best to be helpful.

 

she takes them up on offers to stay the night, occasionally; but most of the time she camps out underneath the open sky, shaded by solitary trees or hidden in the tall, resilient grass.

 

_It’s so endlessly blue._

 

the ache of missing him spreads throughout her like splinters of ice-fire. she paws at her chest.

 

“So helplessly blue.”

 

the words are lost to the wind.

 

.

.

.

 

so is much of her search.

 

the underground laboratories still bear Sasuke’s footfalls, quite literally in places; and within their long, cavernous depths she almost startles at the sight of people that aren’t truly there anymore — staff and inmates, all met with uncertain fates, their screams still clinging to the walls. they’re perpetually hovering in the corner of her eye, mute and judgmental, _waiting._

 

what for, exactly, she does not know. does not dare wonder, either.

 

yet there are no signs of recent _human_ activity, of recent corporeal presence, no matter how minutious she is in seeking them out.

 

and then, just as all around her seems to be falling into the blackest throes of despair, the first hawk arrives.

 

.

.

.

 

* * *

  

**tbc.**


	2. Chapter 2

.

.

.

 

it is a small bird; and quite a pretty one at that, chest a honeyed brown and wing-feathers a deep russet dipped in stark white at the ends. she almost doesn’t notice it’s a summon.

 

almost.

 

at first, it is content to follow her around, studiously distant — surveying her from the air, a dark shadow with the sun above it; setting on branches that are just low enough to take a good look at her face whenever she pauses to breathe and regroup her focus. her trek across the belly of the Land of Rice Paddies is done at neck-break speed, and the little fellow tilts its’ head, almost as if trying to ask her what’s the rush.

 

“It’s easy for _you_ to laugh,” she tells it, pulling a face. the bird seems to shrug; a little ‘wotcha-gonna-do’.

 

they keep moving.

 

then, during the evening, the bird says: “I know where he is.”

 

pointedly, Sakura doesn’t startle.

 

“I figured he’d sent you to tell me to give up,” she says.

 

“He did, actually,” the bird says, sheepish. “But—” and here it pauses, pondering its’ words, “I don’t think that would do him any favors.”

 

her eyebrows rise, inquisitive.

 

“He was looking at you, earlier,” it says. “Through me, that is, but still. _Still._ ” a pause, again; then: “He’s lonely. And alone. And as long as that’s the case, his vision will only grow darker.”

 

“I don’t know if I can bring him back,” she says, quietly, almost as if afraid of her own words. “He doesn’t _want_ to be brought back. Not truly. So it wouldn’t be right for me to—” here she stops, biting at her lip.

 

_Gods, what even **am** I doing._

 

the bird tilts its’ head. “Bringing him back is not a prerequisite of following him. You knew that when you left Konoha, didn’t you?”

 

she’d known, of course; and so she had told herself that being close to him at all would be enough. but in her heart she had hoped.

 

deep within, she still did.

 

“I’ll lead you there.”

 

.

.

.

 

she starts worrying that it’s a trap; but Sasuke is scarcely one for subterfuge.

 

_If he wants to kill me, he’ll at least let me know._

 

the night passes by in a blur, just like the ground beneath her feet. they cross borders — all the way past Yugakure, deep into the Land of Hot Water. evening melts into night and night into almost-day, and by the time dawn starts to set the horizon line aflame, Sakura has to direct more and more chakra to her legs just to counter the strain constant movement is putting on her muscles.

 

it’s nothing compared to training under Tsunade, of course, but her body is still recovering from the war. overtaxing while so far removed from home is perilous.

 

_Maybe I'll take a quick trip to an onsen, since I’m here anyway._

 

she sees his chakra signature before she sees him: that unmistakable flare of violet, too forceful to utterly suppress. _No wonder he is always on the move. Stay in one place, and you’ll be found within the day._

 

he’s laying on the grass, head pillowed on a rucksack.

 

“Sakura,” he acknowledges with a tip of the chin. “I see my messenger failed to fulfill his duties.”

 

the bird shrugs its’ wings. “The girl is stubborn; and besides, you owe her this much.”

 

Sasuke answers it with a look that says, _we’ll resume this conversation later,_ and the bird vanishes in a swirl of smoke.

 

“Nosy bastard.”

 

the silence grows long. then, weary: “Go home, Sakura.”

 

“First, tell my why you left.”

 

he’s quiet for a long time; and the sky above them grows bluer, bluer, bluer. she feels their bodies become small and fade beneath the endlessness of it all. the moment absorbs them, until all that is left is the grass swaying in the wind.

 

and then, he does.

 

.

.

.

 

“There’s nothing for me to go back to,” he starts, hands folded on his chest. he speaks mechanically, more to himself than for her benefit. “Brother — Itachi wanted me to restore the clan’s honor and rebuild it. I won’t. I _can’t._ It just isn’t right.” he turns to face her. “I don’t belong there anymore. Sometimes I wonder if I ever really did.”

 

she wants to say: _Of course you did, it’s your **home** , _but somehow it tastes too much like a lie.

 

she wants to say: _Of course you did, **I** was there, _ but that is so horribly selfish she feels her cheeks light up with shame; and she wants to say, _You were loved, you were loved, you were loved, all the trees have your mother in them,_ but the words get stuck in her throat.

 

“Why didn’t you talk to us before you left, at least?”

 

“Do you really think Naruto would let me go if he knew I wanted out?”

 

 _No._ “He’d understand.”

 

“Pft. Yeah, right.”

 

he falls silent again. then: “There are also political issues. I’m in a precarious position, and for good reason — the pardon I received is a sham, and it can be easily revoked. As things stand, they’d collar me, either by confining me to Konoha or by making me into an errand boy.” here he sneers, a dark shadow passing over his features. “The only way I can make myself disappear is if there’s nothing to tie me or trace me. So _please._ Go home, Sakura.”

 

softly: “No.”

 

he’s behind her in seconds, the shorter of his blades a hairsbreadth away from nipping the skin above her aorta.

 

“Go.”

 

softer still: “No.”

 

his free hand clings to her forearm like a lifeline. “Please.”

 

“There’s no point in going back if you aren’t there.”

 

“There’s no point in following me, either.”

 

she pushes away the blade with the back of a gloved finger. “I think there is.”

 

he sighs deeply from within the chest, the curve of his back a long, resigned line.

 

“Do as you like,” he says.

 

and just like that, he vanishes again.

 

.

.

.

 

* * *

  

**tbc.**


	3. Chapter 3

.

.

.

 

by the time she finds him again, it’s already January.

 

the only feeling she has in most of her body is a needling, uncomfortable sort of numbness.

 

“I told you to go home,” he chides, his back turned to her.

 

she shrugs. “I just need to buy a heavier parka.”

 

“Consider investing in a poncho.”

 

bemused: “You want us to match?”

 

side-eyeing her, now: “Tch.”

 

she can’t help it; she laughs. at first a giggle, burning up her throat like soda fizz — and then a full-bodied chortle, hands clutching at her stomach.

 

Sasuke just stares.

 

“I’m sorry, it’s just — god.” _What even_ _ **am**_ _I doing,_ she asks herself, not for the first time. “It’s just that, somehow, I missed that.”

 

her lips are blue; most of her body is, really. weary, Sasuke sighs.

 

 _I’m starting to understand why Shikamaru found women_ _to be_ _so troublesome._

 

“There’ll be a blizzard soon. You should take cover.”

 

she fists her hands in his hair before he can go; and as he’s sitting down, she has the height advance.

 

“Don’t you _dare_ run out on me again. I’m serious.”

 

he quirks an eyebrow. “Or?”

 

“I’ve punched God, you know.”

 

“I am no god.”

 

“—which makes you that more breakable.”

 

her smile is too sharp at the edges. _Too many teeth._ it is at once a look that suits her well and one he’d never wanted to see her sport; despite himself, he is attracted.

 

“There’s a cave nearby,” he offers.

 

“Lead the way.”

 

.

.

.

 

there's plenty room within for the both of them to sit comfortably; and yet, somehow, they still end up sitting close enough to knock knees. Sasuke wonders when, exactly, had he grown so feeble of heart — but deep inside a quiet voice ascertains, _Maybe I'm too tired to put up a fight and maybe, just maybe, I've wanted something like this my whole life._

 

with a small, almost nonexistent grunt, he opens up the folds of his poncho.

 

“I didn’t know it can do that.”

 

he rolls his eyes. “Just come inside. I don’t want to wait out the storm with a _corpse._ ”

 

the prospect of physicality is already horrifying enough, though not for the reasons he’d originally expected.

 

“Well...don’t mind if I do, then.”

 

she melts into his side, an almost-perfect fit of bone and tissue. even through the heavy clothing, he can feel just how close she had come to hypothermia. he tsks.

 

_I guess I'm not the only stupid one._

 

“Sakura?”

 

almost asleep: “Mm?”

 

“Buy a fucking poncho.”

 

.

.

.

 

the storm comes and goes, but the middle of it is drawn-out. when she wakes, Sakura doesn't know for how long she has slept; what she _does_ know, however, is that she wakes up still buried in Sasuke's chest. he'd shifted them, sometime during the long night, pillowing most of her weight with his own body.

 

in a daze, she touches the sides of his face.

 

“Good morning to you too,” he grumbles out, voice still heavy with sleep.

 

“You’re still here,” she murmurs, pushing down on his flesh more insistently. “You didn’t run.”

 

he almost smiles. “Didn’t you tell me not to?”

 

.

.

.

 

* * *

  

**_fin._ **

 


End file.
